Too Gooey To Be True

Lambs Pride Project Melt Down!

In the winter of 2007, I was given the gift of a Singer LK100 Knit Machine (with 90 needles) by my great grandma. Based on the fabulous pictures of patterns that came with this machine, my guess is that it was sold in the late 80s and was probably stuck in her closet since then. This fulfilled my deepest desire to knit like a maniac. A month of practice, playing, and love, I decided I could knit yards and felt what I knit. The idea has many possibilities.




I used Lambs Pride 80% woold and 20% mohair, which felted beautifully when I took a textiles class. Each color had 3 swatches with the knit machine gauge of 1, 5, and 9 (1 was the tightest, and 9 was the loosest). The colors were separated by acrylic yarn that was thin, to allow each swatch to felt without adjusting to the size change.








Before:
Gauge: 1, 5, 9, with pink acrylic yarn.
Stitches: 20x20 (with minor mistakes on some)



Felting Process: I washed the knits all together in a pillow sack I made with a zipper. The laundry setting was on small load, hot/cold water (which was more warm than hot), and on super wash. I used 1 table spoon of Synthrapol while the water was running. I noticed a difference within the first five minutes of the knits in the washer. And saw more change in 10 minutes. At 20 minutes, the knits didn't change much from when I took them out at 10 minutes.
The smaller knit swatches felted less than the bigger knit swatches. The pattern in the bigger knit swatches is less visible than the smaller knits.

After Felted:
Spice & Chocolate Souffle






Deep Charcoal & Grey Heather






Silver Gray & Old Sage &Jade






Sunburst Gold & Dynamite Blue






Here is a video of me working my machine on my first sweater.